Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 4:02 PM
Niels Vandeputte has won the X2O Trophy Hamme. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider defeated Eli Iserbyt in the final lap, who had to settle for second place. Felipe Orts came third. European champion Thibau Nys was also at the front in the final lap, but fell after a collision with a spectator. Lars van der Haar remains (narrowly) in the lead in the X2O Trophy rankings.
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The top riders who competed for victory in the Superprestige Merksplas on Saturday also traveled to Hamme on Sunday for the Flandriencross. Laurens Sweeck went for a two in a row, while Eli Iserbyt, Michael Vantourenhout, European champion Thibau Nys and X2O Trophy leader Lars van der Haar were also present.
Hectic start
Out of the starting blocks on top? Victor Van de Putte. While rider Deschacht-Hens-Maes took the lead in the first straight line, Pim Ronhaar was completely crushed. The Dutchman was the last to enter the field. Toon Aerts also had a poor start. The other favorites were at the front.
After one lap Niels Vandeputte had taken over the lead from his (almost) namesake Van de Putte. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider took fifteen bonus seconds for the X2O Trophy. Ten and five seconds respectively remained for Laurens Sweeck (second) and Van de Putte (third). There were some small differences at that moment, but in the second round things came together more. So in the third of eleven rounds we had a small peloton.
Quartet in the lead
Four riders then separated. This was due to a crash by Eli Iserbyt, who fell in fifth position. Vandeputte, Felipe Orts, Michael Vanthourenhout and Thibau Nys took advantage and took the lead together. The large group behind them also included Aerts and (after a strong catch-up race) Ronhaar. It was Van der Haar who took the initiative here. The Dutch leader in the X2O Trophy had broken away from the rest at the end of the fifth round together with Jente Michels.
Van der Haar left Michels behind and managed to cross to the leading group on his own. Vanthourenhout should have passed there for a while, but was able to return and then take the lead. The Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal rider seemed to push the pace a bit, which was advantageous for his teammate Iserbyt. This gave him the opportunity to return. Vanthourenhout then gave up again, creating a breach together with Nys and Orts. Together they started round eight.
Exchange a penny
Although, Orts attacked on the finish line. Nys and Vanthourenhout hesitated for a moment and the Spaniard opened a nice gap. It then took Nys a long round to get back at Orts. Vanthourenhout, Iserbyt and Vandeputte also returned to the front, Van der Haar followed a few meters away. And those few meters quickly increased. Van der Haar started to lose a lot of ground compared to the first group, where a reborn Iserbyt now took the lead. The number two in the X2O Trophy classification accelerated hard to put the leader behind.
And to fight for the day’s victory, of course. Iserbyt continued to put pressure on the competition until Vandeputte took over in the final round. After a slip by Iserbyt, in second position, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider got a gap. But Iserbyt and Nys were able to join their cart again, while Orts and Vanthourenhout were also still on the rope. Ultimately, however, it would come down to a battle between Vandeputte and Iserbyt.
Val Nys, victory Vandeputte
Nys made a few mistakes, after which he also fell. He collided with a spectator and was thus able to forget a top ranking. Orts and Vanthourenhout were too far away to return to the leaders Iserbyt and Vandeputte. The latter had a few meters, but had to give everything until the last straight line to hold off the Belgian champion. That eventually worked. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider won his first classification cross of this season. Iserbyt came second, Orts third.
Iserbyt fell just short of the day’s victory, but he did very well for the X2O Trophy classification. The Belgian approaches within two seconds of Lars van der Haar, who crossed the line fifth in Hamme. Number three Toon Aerts follows almost two minutes later.
